Topic: Reminder: Be Open and Helpful To New People To Bitcoin - page 2. (Read 2079 times)

Really great thoughts from everyone and I fully agree about mining too - a person who's more experienced in mining may run into some basic questions.  These discussions provide great reminders that information isn't always equally dispersed and even some long-term bitcoinaires admit to not really understanding it at first glance, so it can often involve multiple discussions.

I think we should help the newbie as much as we can, by bringing more user we will have a better price and who knows this thing could lead to more shop adapting bitcoin, as the one that joined early in bitcoin world we need to give the new comer information as much as possible and also we remind them what thing should be avoided, small teaching from us can be big thing for them

Hmm, this is a new problem in the growth of the bitcoin. Most of the problems I encountered came from someone to use bitcoin doubts, because they think that bitcoin is a digital currency that supports the activities of the bad in the world. So, maybe they get information that is not valid or it could just be they are lazy to find as much information as possible in the bitcoin. Indeed one's task when it introduces the need to provide information appropriately and correctly
 

Sharing is caring and bitcoin is meant to bring community together and have secure decentralize payment system which we have today. Without support and help from experts newbies will always struggle to get into bitcoin, the more people we have in bitcoin community the more support we will develop for healthy bitcoin economy.

This really a issue about "bitcoin" attaching its name to Ponzi/HYIP. We have to explained to them that this is not true and bitcoin is really has a lot of advantage of having bitcoin or earning bitcoin as store value. So we really need to tell what bitcoin really is not just in this forum but specially in the outside world as well. Just make it is simple, as others have said.

This is really something I have put actually on myself to do even before reading this but the issue about people who are coming in new into bitcoin is about impatience to learn through the ranks. They are mostly about what they can earn immediately and how they can immediately turn the little they have to 2 btc even though they cannot afford 1btc at the moment. But either way, we will a I'll keep trying to make the penetration continues.

it is always hard to find the balance between introducing bitcoin to someone new and misinforming them about bitcoin. for example the worst thing i have seen is usually about mining. i have hear it being described in the weirdest ways.
for me, i will always stick to simplicity, bitcoin is money and you don't need to create an account with a centralized authority like a bank or paypal website for example and you are in full control of your money and how you spend it.
if they ask me about technical stuff, even if know it and i could explain, i try not to. instead i asked them whether they know how an ATM machine works, if you don't know it down to all the details you don't need to do the same with bitcoin either.

I think if someone is interested in buying Bitcoin it is already a good thing. The next step is to make the purchase for that person as easy as possible. I remember when I wanted to buy $20 worth of BTC and even though I tried I couldn't do that because on my localbictoins the minimum you can buy was $50 in BTC. Fortunately it is not the case now. You can easily buy $10 worth of BTC where I live, but most people don't know this and because of that they don't buy.

this apply to new miners too not only traders, they don't know what a rig is, which is a normal computer after all with 6 gpu instead of one

teaching them these easy things will make bitcoin more exposed to possible greatest adoption, and make also possible to have better decentralization

because more buyers more bitcoin in the hand of more people instead of few etilist

I'll have to disagree with you on that.  The average person might not know some of these things, but it's hard to explain them otherwise.  The closest you can get to a simple and accurate explanation (complicated doesn't just mean using big words) would be something like:

Bitcoin is a decentralised online currency.  It allows you to send to others anywhere in the world without third parties having to personally verify your transactions.  Instead, your transactions are verified from a collection of "miners" who verify them in exchange for new Bitcoins, which is how new Bitcoin is introduced into the network.  Your Bitcoin is held on a computer and it only exists there instead of in a bank's database.

Bitcoin is also infinitely divisible and you can buy as little or as much as you want.

Really, it doesn't change how complicated the explanation is.  It's just that people have to go and look up a couple of key words to make it a hundred times easier for themselves.

Yes,when i say that bitcoin's price is $1250 today,for one second,they get stunned.They start thinking that how thbey could buy such a costly asset and instead they could buy gold.But,then i explain them that bitcoin could be divided into 8 units and they could even buy 0.01 btc.Most of people who are new to bitcoins have this doubt and they should be properly explained for bitcoin progress.

exactly, i meet some people like you and even if i explain that to buy bitcoin, we don't have to buy full of bitcoin but we can do with separately. some of them can accept this and trying to buy with small amount of their money but some of them still can not understand and they only rejected. for me, i am no problem with this, i am sure that there are many people that will accepting bitcoin and for them which don't buy, they only can saw what will happen later.

OP, you are 100% correct.... I have found many people that decided against buying bitcoins, because they did not know that you

can buy smaller amounts than a full bitcoin. Once they understood this, they bought a bunch.   .... I always use this example :

With Bitcoin you can buy a cart full of bitcoins { full bitcoin } or a barrel { a bunch of Satoshis } or a single apple {a satoshi}  

You have got a guy who has the eager to invest into bitcoin. But everyone are not the same. To some extent we can teach them, though they are not interested into such stuff. But at some point we ourselves will get frustrated, so its good to explain to the one who believes in such a innovation.

Yes I can understand what the Op and his friends going through. The problem is people often spread nonsense about Bitcoins. And there are people who do not even bother to see basics and then just assume that it's scam or not useful. I have taken pain taking skills to explain people and clear their misconceptions. Honestly I don't get tired now, I treat it as a challenge and have decided to be do whatever I can do to help Bitcoin name prosper, and make sure people are clear about Bitcoins.

I'm sure most of the people on this forum can understand it, but the average person probably doesn't even know what 'peer-to-peer' or open source means.
Plus, keep in mind that most of the people wanting to know more about bitcoin want to learn the practical stuff first.

They want to know how they can buy it, how they can use it andhow to sell it.

Actually while I can't really get into the mindset of a newbie, that looks fairly simple and doesn't go into the technical details of how Bitcoin works (which I don't even understand well enough myself).  It's just an explanation of why Bitcoin has to exist, which is reasonable enough.

It's nice to talk about the key properties, and this is just one of them.  The problem is that the explanation of Bitcoin can't be in a soundbite while still being reasonable.  Bitcoin is actually quite complicated as a concept because it differs from fiat money in so many different ways, like how it's infinitely divisible while a dollar is not.

While some explanations might be too complicated, that one is fine for anyone with an ounce of intelligence.  As Einstein said, "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler".

i myself love to learn everything i can and have found that its easier to tone it down to laymans speech as best as possible.

yes i get backlash by some who think i do not know what i am talking about because i am not using the latest techno jargon buzzword of the week, but thats their issue, concerning trying to help their own ego's by preferring the jargon rather than actually explain the end-user experience in a way anyone can understand.

EG its like if you become a doctor, try to avoid saying things like, im sorry you have suffered an acute myocardial infarction. and just say im sorry your heart stopped for 10 seconds.

it may seem more abrupt and frank, but atleast the context gets across better

this:

Bitcoin uses peer-to-peer technology to operate with no central authority or banks; managing transactions and the issuing of bitcoins is carried out collectively by the network. Bitcoin is open-source; its design is public, nobody owns or controls Bitcoin and everyone can take part. Through many of its unique properties, Bitcoin allows exciting uses that could not be covered by any previous payment system.

becomes:

Bitcoin uses a method of managing transactions between people without a central manager. issuing out new funds as a reward to certain parties who follow the rules of this diverse network. Bitcoin is designed to be public, no single body owns or controls the network and everyone can take part. Through many of its unique properties, Bitcoin allows exciting uses that could not be covered by any previous payment system.

It's really easy to take all that 'simple' information for granted if you've been around for a while, but I can certainly imagine that it must be pretty confusing for new people.

I just did a little test to see what kind of information you'd be getting if you just look for 'Bitcoin' on Google and it's really not newbie-friendly to say the least.
A lot of technical information with rather difficult terminology especially for non tech-savvy people.

Just an example from my first result (bitcoin.org):

Thank you for the reminder. It is easy to become frustrated teaching something you already know. But there was a time, not long ago, when no one understood bitcoin and we all figured it out together by sharing what we know.

You don't want to be this guy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfKL6RM8hsY